| Welcome to In The Balcony. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Plus, you'll be eligible for the monthly $1 million prize. (Not really.) Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| The Mad Doctor of Market Street (1942) | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 2 2014, 08:50 AM (362 Views) | |
| Laughing Gravy | Dec 2 2014, 08:50 AM Post #1 |
|
Look for In The Balcony on Facebook!
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
![]() The Mad Doctor of Market Street (1942) Dir. Joseph H. Lewis ITB Shock Theatre #073 Well, at least it's short. Mad scientist Lionel Atwill kills people and brings them back to life, but when the cops interrupt him one day when he's done the former but before he's gotten to the latter (hey, didn't we see this same plot in a Boris Karloff movie?) he shaves his beard and hot-foots it to New Zealand, brutally killing a snoopy detective on-board the steamship just to show how truly rotten and not one o' them Karloff-like-merely-misunderstood mad scientists he is. Well, the ship catches fire somehow and sinks and Atwill and his lifeboat compadres make their way to a nice little island (this thing was shot under the title Terror in the South Seas). Survivors include Claire Dodd and Richard Davies as the non-interesting lovers, Una Merkel (funny) and Nat Pendleton (unfunny) as the comic relief, and John Eldredge as the snotty, cravenly ship's officer with "victim" written all over his wussy, weasel-like face. The island is full of island natives (what're the odds), including Noble Johnson and Mala(!), and when the chief's wife falls into a coma, and they all think she's dead, Atwill brings her back 'round with a good shot of adrenaline, and hey, didn't we see that in a John Travolta movie? Anyway, naturally the natives assume Lionel is the God of Life (c'mon, we ALL would) and worship him accordingly, which only makes his ego that much vaster. Soon he has his sights set on bedding Claire Dodd, and the thought of them naked together is the only terrifying thing in the whole picture. Can Davies save his lady love before Atwill kills him and, more importantly, before Pendleton becomes so annoying we turn this movie off? Not the worst Universal horror, but close enough to the bottom of the barrel that there should be sliver warnings anyway. The Mad Doctor of Market Street was apparently made (on a miniscule budget, with contract players, on standing sets) for little money on a tight schedule to play as the undercard with The Wolf Man, and every frame looks it. You know what you're in for when the opening credits are plain letters on a grey background, shown over music from Frankenstein pictures. The only good part of this thing is when Atwill soaks a rag or flower or whatever with poison and walks toward the camera with it (to the theme of Son of Frankenstein), and director Lewis liked that effect so much Atwill does it nearly as often as Pendleton mugs. Oh, there's another scene I liked: Miss Merkel takes off her dress. She's a cutie. And yeah, although she's supposed to be annoying in this movie, I liked her. I would've been annoying, too, had I been stuck on a jungle island with THESE guys. Million-dollar Dialog: Una: "Tell me more about Shanghai, Mr. Hadley. I just love the Chinese. They're so Oriental!" Nat, regarding the natives, who are building a pyre to incinerate all the white people in this movie, and I for one can't fault them that: "Why, they're building a big fire! Maybe they're going to give us a weenie roast!" You'll find this thing, if you must, on the Universal Cult Horror Collection from the TCM Vault line. A lovely print, too. And the extras are the usual TCM things: a ton of original stills, both on-set and promotional, and posters and stuff. If this exists in the Universal files, why aren't they included on ALL DVD/BD releases? Great stuff here! I wish it were downloadable. Funny, TCM doesn't like to put trailers on their discs, though. This isn't a good movie, though, despite the welcome return to my TV screen of Mala (and if you look fast, you'll see Tom Steele, too, serial lovers). I mean, when Una Merkel is the best thing in your picture, you've got troubles, my friend. |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
![]() |
|
| mort bakaprevski | Dec 2 2014, 09:30 AM Post #2 |
|
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Nonsense! Una is always cute & delightful. Even when she's stuck in Lompoc with Grady Sutton. |
| "Nov Shmoz Ka Pop." | |
![]() |
|
| panzer the great & terrible | Dec 2 2014, 07:30 PM Post #3 |
|
Mouth Breather
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Got to agree with mort. Una was quite the hottie. Agree with Gravy too -- not a good movie. Edited by panzer the great & terrible, Dec 2 2014, 07:31 PM.
|
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
![]() |
|
| Laughing Gravy | Oct 19 2017, 06:40 AM Post #4 |
|
Look for In The Balcony on Facebook!
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I watched this again for my 31 Nights of Halloween movies. Why this one? Well, I wanted to demonstrate to my lovely companion what a 1940s horror B-movie looked like. (She fell asleep - a proper and fitting reaction to the movie, I think.) I also picked this 'cause I'd just watched Una in The Bat Whispers and wanted to see her again. What a cutie! Additional Million-dollar Una Dialog: "We're up to our ears in a murder mystery and it's right under our noses, too!" |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
![]() |
|
| AndyFish | Oct 25 2017, 07:04 AM Post #5 |
|
Movie Watcha Foist Class
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Sort of a poor man's version of RKO'S Five Came Back. I didn't hate it-- but I'm a sucker for Universals of the 30s and 40s and this was filled with enough of the familiar cast and trappings to at least keep me from dozing off. |
| www.andytfish.com | |
![]() |
|
| « Previous Topic · Jungle Boogie! · Next Topic » |





![]](http://z2.ifrm.com/static/1/pip_r.png)





12:17 AM Jul 11